Cloud business phone systems provide a significant return on investment (ROI), as well as increases in efficiency and productivity, according to new research. Forrester (News - Alert) Consulting, in tandem with cloud business phone system provider, RingCentral, conducted a Total Economic Impact study, querying a group of companies that had adopted RingCentral’s (News - Alert) cloud phone systems.

The research found that in a composite organization of 600 employees, a business could expect a 182 percent ROI over three year, with a payback period of less than two months. The study further found that companies reported boosted revenue for customer-facing employees, as well as increases in efficiency and productivity, after migrating to a cloud phone system.

Much of the reported cost savings was gleaned from migrating from on-premise PBX (News - Alert) systems, and the multiple vendor relationships, required to maintain and manage traditional voice, fax, web conferencing and video conferencing services. By eliminating disparate systems and software through a business cloud phone system, companies reported cutting more than $1.6 million in costs over a three-year period.

Cloud offerings also help make employees more accessible to customers, according to the businesses queried, resulting in four percent average revenue increases per customer-facing employee. That led to more than $5.3 million in total increased revenues over three years.

The study echoes research from Gartner (News - Alert), estimating that a major shift toward cloud systems will begin by the first half of next year, with around 33 percent penetration by 2017. The research firm estimated around 50 million enterprise users of cloud office systems last year, roughly eight percent of overall users. That number is expected to grow to 695 million users by 2022, driven by ROI and productivity and efficiency gains.

"Although it is still early in the overall evolution of this cloud-based segment, there are many cases where businesses — particularly smaller ones and those in the retail, hospitality and manufacturing industries — should move at least some users to cloud office systems during the next two years," said Tom Austin, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "However, readiness varies by service provider, and caution is warranted."